Podcasts are an increasingly popular medium for distributing convent over the Internet. In particular, podcasts are media content items, typically provided in episodic format, prepared for users to download or stream from their own media device. Generally, podcasts are available from provider websites, and provided to users or subscribers as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds with audio and video files itemized as enclosures or episodes. Users or subscribers can stream or download these RSS feeds from one or more media devices equipped to provide corresponding audio and video output to the user.
The media content in podcasts is typically predefined when the podcast is created. Not surprisingly, podcasts currently provide little flexibility for updating or dynamically adapting media content to the user. Consequently, providers and distributors lack the ability and flexibility to provide targeted and updated advertisements to users and subscribers within the podcast content.
Yet digital advertisement can be an extremely effective way for advertisers to reach a wide mass of potential customers and induce numerous users to purchase their products. By targeting users with effective digital advertisements, advertisers can yield large financial returns from their digital advertisements. Unfortunately, current podcast solutions greatly limit providers and distributors in their ability to fully benefit from the combined widespread popularity of podcasts and the economic advantages of digital advertisements.